updated 12:20 pm EDT, Fri August 5, 2011

RightNow wants new declaratory judgment vs Lodsys

Customer experience developer RightNow took Lodsys to task on Thursday after it quietly moved for a new declaratory judgment (below) to invalidate the company's patents. The motion would have the Eastern District of Wisconsin-based court rule that RightNow's chat support system, as well as customers like Bass Pro, not only aren't violating four of Lodsys' key patents but that the patents themselves are untenable. Lodsys has been 'threatening' all of RightNow's customers with boilerplate infringement claims, RightNow said.

The claim, along with denying the patents, would prevent Lodsys from interfering with business.

Companies have been pressing for judgments against Lodsys before, including The New York Times, and largely in response to wide-ranging lawsuits against Best Buy and others that effectively claim Lodsys owns the rights to chat support, surveys, and other basics.

The latest increases pressure on Lodsys and could be beneficial for mobile app developers as well. Lodsys has often tried to wield some of the same patents in its patent claims over in-app purchases in Android and iOS and could lose its ground if it no longer has the relevant patents to work with.

Time for a knockout punch...

Good rid-dens Lodsys!

I think patent trolls like Lodsys should be taken out of business. The Patent system should only allow companies with real products that are actively being sold to be the only companies that can go after others in Patent infringement cases. If you don't have a valid product then your Patent becomes open and can't be used against others.